Service Learning Commons^™

On Civil Education: Beginning A Dialogue, Laura Martino, Erik W. Robelen

Civic Engagement

In his recent book, The End of Work, economist and political activist Jeremy Rifkin describes the dramatic shift the global economy is undergoing as we enter the next century. Rifkin documents the move from a mass worker economy to a high technology global economy that thrives on the innovations of labor-saving technology and corporate downsizing. "In the agricultural, manufacturing, and service sectors," he writes, "machines are quickly replacing human labor and promise an economy of near automated production by the mid-decades of the twenty-first century." Rifkin argues that government is also offering fewer employment opportunities, and that the rising high-tech …

Animal Tracks Habitat Action Pack, Rhonda Lucas Donald, Marsha A. Lakes Matyas, Sara Bradley, Cheryl Dixon, Elenor Hodges, Jennifer Kier, Margaret Tunstall, Charles Wilkinson

Curriculum

Welcome to Animal Tracks ®, a classroom education program of the National Wildlife Federation focusing on teacher training and environmental education resources. In Animal Tracks materials, the animals and their tracks lead educators and students on an exploration of conservation issues.

Thank you for using this Action Pack, our newest resource. We hope you find the Action Packs useful and because this is a "work-in-progress," we welcome any comments you might have for improvements. As you turn the page you'll see our questionnaire. Please take a minute to fill it out and put it in the mail. We'll include you …

Weaving Service-Learning Into The Fabric Of Your College, Nan Ottenritter, C. David Lisman

Higher Education

Institutionalizing service-learning can be a rich and complex process. The following ideas about sustainability are offered as points to keep in mind as we go about getting service-learning programs more solidly grounded within our institutions. We've organized our ideas into the following categories: institutional mission, faculty outcomes, student outcomes, community impact, coordination of services, and advancement of the field. Most topics are accompanied by a checklist and "thought prompts." The checklist provides a guide for improving service-learning programs from the perspective of many different constituencies across an institution. The thought prompts are key words that frequently surface in discussions about …

Cross-Cultural Field Placements: Student Teachers Learning From Schools And Communities, Laura L. Stachowski, James M. Mahan

Higher Education

The student teaching experience is typically characterized by a collaboration of school and university-cooperating teacher and university supervisor- to prepare novice educators for the instructional, managerial, and disciplinary demands of classroom teaching. Less often are individuals and groups outside of the immediate school environment perceived as active and important contributors to learning outcomes and professional development for student teachers. However, an increasing number of teacher educators are addressing the role of the community in providing student teachers with information and insights that will enhance the classroom experience in vital ways.

A Pedagogy For Citizenship: Service Learning And Democratic Education, Meta Mendel-Reyes

Higher Education

Maria clutches the papers tightly. After over two hours of waiting through reports, announcements, awards, and other agenda items that seemed much less urgent than hers, the chance to speak has nearly arrived. She looks at the determined face of the African American woman seated beside her, one of several residents living across the street from a trash incinerator that has brought pollution, disease, noise, and rats to their quiet neighborhood. At last, they would have the opportunity to tell their story to elected officials who could do something about it. Maria glances down at the statistics that took her …

De-Platonizing And Democratizing Education As The Bases Of Service Learning, Ira Harkavy, Lee Benson

Service Learning, General

The theoretical bases of academic service learning are examined, with particular attention to John Dewey’s contributions. The service learning movement is conceptualized as part of an ongoing—and still unsuccessful—effort to “de-Platonize” and democratize American higher education in particular and American schooling in general.

Why Are We Here? What Are We Doing? Interdisciplinary Social Studies For The 21st Century, Ann L. Rappaport

School K-12

It's the interdisciplinary potential that drew many of us into social studies from the start, isn't it? Because the human condition is, in fact, interdisciplinary. We're attracted by the study of real people and their challenges. We're magnetized by the processes people use to find solutions to a variety of societal problems. It's appealing to learn how people organize to accomplish certain goals. We thrive on diversity, on relationships, on cultural artifacts, on connections. We love the drama of discovery.

Service Learning On The Information Superhighway, Bonnie Bracey

Service Learning, General

The Information Superhighway is more than the Internet. It is a series of components, including the collection of...high-speed, interactive...networks that exist today and will emerge tomorrow. It is the satellite, terrestrial, and wireless technologies....It is the information and content that flow over the infrastructure....It is the computers, televisions, telephones, radios, and other products....It is the people who will provide, manage, and generate new information....And it is the individual Americans who will use and benefit from the Information Superhighway. The Information Superhighway...encompasses all these components and captures the vision of a nationwide, invisible, seamless, dynamic web of transmission mechanisms, information, appliances, …

What Are Students Learning?: Assessing Service Learning And The Curriculum, Kathryn Blash Cumbo, Jennifer A. Vadeboncoeur

Service Learning, General

Service learning, a method of learning and teaching, has the potential to move our educational system into the 21st century by providing a vehicle for integrating the needs of schools and communities while reflecting current reform agendas and providing meaningful learning experiences for students. In order for service learning to play a role in the transformation of our schools, however, educators must become successful at linking service to learning- making connections between service experiences and academic learning explicit. This paper explores the meaning of learning in service learning by explicating: a) how service learning links to current standards based reform …

Animal Tracks Northern Forest Action Pack, Elizabeth Soper, Marsha A. Lakes Matyas, Sara Bradley, Cheryl Dixon, Elenor Hodges, Jennifer Kier, Margaret Tunstall, Charles Wilkinson

Curriculum

Welcome to Animal Tracks®, a classroom education program of the National Wildlife Federation focusing on teacher training and environmental education resources. In Animal Tracks materials, the animals and their tracks lead educators and students on an exploration of conservation issues.

Thank you for using this Action Pack, our newest resource. We hope you find the Action Packs useful and as a ''work-in-progress,'' we welcome any comments you might have for improvements. As you turn the page you'll see our questionnaire. Please take a minute to fill it out and put it in the mail. We'll include you on our mailing …

Awarding Credit For Service: A Study Conducted For The Corporation For National Service, Robert D. Shumer

Higher Education

The expansion of service-learning and service programs throughout the educational system in the United States continues at a strong rate. Bolstered by the national initiatives sponsored by the Corporation for National Service (CNS) and by state movements such as the mandated graduation requirement for service in Maryland, many people are interested in where and in how this reform movement is being implemented. Specifically, they are interested in understanding what counts for service, how service is monitored, and how service counts or is credited in school districts. A central issue focuses on the criteria school systems and school personnel use to …

Why Service-Learning Is Bad, John Eby

Service Learning, General

Service-learning has potential to transform teaching and learning in the academy and to call a generation of students to develop social responsibility and an ethic of service. Research on the learning side of the service-learning equation shows that students develop social responsibility, reduce racism, develop leadership and gain personal and social skills. There are however important questions which must be examined on the service side of the equation. The demands a learning orientation places on service limits its effectiveness and its ability to address community needs at a structural level. The service students do is often ameliorative and the explanations …

Animal Tracks Wetlands Action Pack, Maria Hagedorn, Marsha A. Lakes Matyas, Sara Bradley, Cheryl Dixon, Elenor Hodges, Jennifer Kier, Margaret Tunstall, Charles Wilkinson

Curriculum

Welcome to Animal Tracks®, a classroom education program of the National Wildlife Federation focusing on teacher training and environmental education resources. In Animal Tracks materials, the animals and their tracks lead educators and students on an exploration of conservation issues.

Thank you for using this Action Pack, our newest resource. We hope you find the Action Packs useful and as a "work-in-progress," we welcome any comments you might have for I improvements. As you turn the page you'll see our questionnaire. Please take a minute to fill it out and put it in the mail. We'll include you on our …

Integrating Community Into Training, Robert D. Shumer

Partnerships/Community

Community involvement and partnership are key to the success of National Service programs. The best way to show members and the community - the importance of working with the community is to incorporate the community Into every aspect of your program, including your training - from pre-service training and continuing through in-service and close-of-service activities.

Academic Effects Of Service-Learning, Elizabeth B. Gardner, Corinne M. Baron

Higher Education

Service-learning is growing in popularity. Ziolkowski (1996) pointed out that if service-learning is to become a lasting component in American education, it must have a clear link to "the academy" (in addition to the development of moral and civic values and the benefit to the community). We therefore examined students' perception of their learning of specific aspects of course content. We measured perceived learning in two sections of Cognitive Psychology in which half of the students did service-learning. We asked each student to rate his or her knowledge of Attention, Memory, Language, Cognitive Development, Metacognition, Individual Differences in cognitive processes, …

Designing Collaborations Between Community Based Organizations And Schools To Produce Curriculum Models For Service-Learning Programs (Tree Trust), Tree Trust

Guides

Tree Trust's T.R.E.E.S. for TEENS program is a curriculum-based, school-to-work program, that emphasizes on the environment, and integrates classroom education with community service, service learning, and local resources.

Developing A Community Service Program For High School Students, Ellen M. Hoefer

Graduate Research Papers

Youth leadership development within community service allows teenagers to serve others, to lead, and to contribute to society in ways that support positive roles, personal values, and communal beliefs in justice and equality. Ideally, community service learning builds supportive structures for youth leaders, encourages positive dialog around new relationships, and empowers others as competent and purposeful individuals.

Learning is not merely answering a teacher's questions to get a grade, but asking oneself questions to understand and to know what to do. When learning is from real life, and the consequences are real, one may have to question the surface appearance, …

The Institution As A Citizen: How Colleges And Universities Enhance Their Civic Roles, Nancy L. Thomas

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

This paper is premised on the assumption that civic responsibility is the contemporary version of higher education's historical outreach mission. With that as an understanding, it considers how best colleges and universities can fulfill this commitment of service to external communities, broadly defined to include local, national, and international concerns. The paper offers typologies of ways that institutions structure academic outreach, responsive curricula, land-grant and extension school programs, faculty professional service, coordinating student volunteerism and encouraging public access to campus for athletic or cultural events. Institutions interested in enhancing their civic role can take from this paper strategies for enhancing …

A Proposal For The Development Of Fort Hays State University Service Learning Program, Dan Kahl

Higher Education

"Service Learning" is quickly becoming a style of education that is recognized for its' effectiveness and practical benefits. Linking class curriculum with hands-on applications is often referred to as "experiential education". Service Learning is a form of experiential education identified by an equal emphasis on academic learning and service to others. The combination of focusing on meeting community needs, identifying learning objectives, and intentionally reflecting on what is being learned makes service learning different from plain volunteerism or community service.

Service-Learning Projects In Composition And Beyond, Thomas Deans, Zan Meyer-Goncalves

Higher Education

All college teachers want their courses to be relevant and provocative, and to encourage students to be more active learners of the discipline, participants in the academy, and citizens in the wider community. As teachers of composition, we first experimented with combining community service with classroom teaching because it promised to advance teaching aims we value, especially making connections between academic courses and community needs, and between cognitive thinking and ethical social action. And we continue with service-learning projects because our experience and students' responses suggest a significant degree of success in meeting those goals. But we are certainly not …

Service Learning As A Strategy To Prepare Teacher Candidates For Contemporary Diverse Classrooms, Deborah Hamm, David Dowell, Jean Houck

Higher Education

The article describes a service-learning program jointly developed, implemented, and evaluated by a large university and a culturally and linguistically diverse urban school district. Each semester, over 200 undergraduate students preparing to be teachers learn first-hand about contemporary classrooms by assisting at-risk students. Program evaluation found changes in the undergraduates' attitudes about the importance of social and individual difference on children's learning.

Community Service-Learning In Teacher Education: A Report On Innovative Programs In New England, Beth Wohlleb, Robert Maloy

Higher Education

As the strengths of community service-learning are becoming more recognized by educators at all levels, many institutions of higher education are incorporating CSL as a dynamic pedagogy into their teacher education programs. Many schools or departments of education encourage or require certification candidates to perform CSL as part of their teacher training as ways to learn about the teaching profession through the practice of teaching and reflection. Fewer schools integrate service-learning into their teacher education program in another way: by teaching preservice teachers how to use service-learning as a pedagogy with children in their own future classrooms. This second group …

Higher Education And Civic Responsibility, Alexander W. Astin

Higher Education

It goes without saying that higher education plays a major part in shaping civic life in modern American society. Our colleges and universities not only educate each new generation of leaders in government, business, science, law, medicine, the clergy, and other advanced professions, but are also responsible for setting the standards and training the personnel who will educate the entire citizenry at the precollegiate level. Higher education institutions can also exert important societal influences through the scientific, technological, and cultural knowledge produced by their faculties. (Reprinted with permission by the author.)

Expanding And Sustaining Partnerships, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

The Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program requires adaptations in the university environment. We must examine and reinterpret (1) the roles and responsibilities of faculty; (2) the design of the undergraduate curriculum; (3) the structures of the university that create the capacity and support to sustain different working relationships with the community; and (4) our definitions of success and quality.

How Undergraduates Are Affected By Service Participation, Alexander W. Astin, Linda J. Sax

Higher Education

Based on entering freshman and follow-up data collected from 3,450 students (2,287 women and 1,163 men) attending 42 institutions with federally funded community service programs, the impact of community service participation on undergraduate student development was examined. Even after regression analyses controlled for individual student characteristics at the time of college entry, including the propensity to engage in service, results indicate that participating in service during the undergraduate years substantially enhances the student's academic development, life skill development, and sense of civic responsibility.

Central Park East Secondary School (Cpess) At A Glance, David Smith

School K-12

Ramon, a senior at Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), pushes his way through the doors of the school into the crisp December morning. Covering the three blocks to Mr. Sinai Hospital in minutes, Ramon greets the hospital security guard, heads through the doors marked "employees only," and makes his way to a small auditorium where the weekly CPESS/Mt. Sinai Health Careers Internship Seminar takes place.

Community Connections Kit: Practical Materials For Involving Your Community In Character-Building, Wise Skills Resources

Guides

Many recognize that there is a crisis in American schools today. School violence rates are increasing. Test scores are plummeting in many areas. High dropout rates continue to plague numerous school districts. And our prisons are bursting with men and women who have failed in school. While school districts and state governments wrestle with making our educational system effective, schools are faced with mounting social problems that cannot be solved by merely teaching academic skills.

Seniors For Schools Program Survey 1997-98 (Teachers), Seniors For Schools

Intergenerational

Please complete the following survey. Your responses are very important to us. They will be used, along with student information, to help assess the success of the Seniors for Schools (SFS) program at your school this year and to improve the program for next year. If you feel that the information requested by a particular item is not something you can respond to, based on your involvement with the SFS program, please write "NA" next to the item and continue to the next item. This survey should take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Please return your completed survey to the …

Student Perceptions Of Aging And Disability As Influenced By Service Learning, David Greene

Intergenerational

This study examined the effects of two community service learning experiences on student perceptions of aging in a nursing home and on community-based living with a disability. According to content analysis of student narratives, service learning resulted in increased student awareness of issues pertinent to the students' companions in both settings. This heightened awareness was discussed in terms of the capacity for empathy. While both experiences were effective. there were differences in student responses to the two service learning settings. This suggests a uniqueness in benefit from different settings for service learning. Instructors should design community placements accordingly being cognizant …

Promoting Intergenerational Strategies: The Role Of The Corporation For National Service, Harris Wofford

Intergenerational

Provides information on the Corporation for National Service which works with thousands of nonprofit partners to promote intergenerational strategies. Examples of intergenerational programs supported by the corporation; Supporting roles of the corporation; Aspects about the involvement of older Americans in intergenerational programs that need more research.